Mandy Moore The Next Big Disney Star?

Amanda Leigh “Mandy” Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. She grew up in Florida. Moore became famous as a teenager in the late 1990s, after the release of her teen-oriented pop albums So Real,I Wanna Be with You, and Mandy Moore.

Moore subsequently branched out into a film career, starring in 2002’s A Walk to Remember and later appearing in the lead roles of other movies, such as Chasing Liberty, also aimed at teenage audiences.

Two of Moore’s later films, American Dreamz and Saved!, were satires. Her private life, including her relationships with tennis player Andy Roddick[1] as well as with actors Wilmer Valderrama and Zach Braff[3] became the subject of much discussion in the media. Her most recent album as of September 2009, Amanda Leigh, was released on May 26, 2009. Mandy Moore has sold more than 10 million records worldwide.

Early life

Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, the daughter of Stacy, a former news reporter whom the Orlando Sentinel had once employed, and Donald “Don” Moore, a pilot for American Airlines. Moore’s father is of Irish and Cherokee descent, and her mother is of English and Jewish ancestry. Moore, who has two brothers, Scott Moore and Kyle Moore, grew up in Longwood, Florida, outside of Orlando, where the family moved shortly after her birth because of her father’s job as an airline pilot. She was raised in the Catholic religion, even though she is no longer a practicing Catholic, and attended Bishop Moore High School, a Catholic school in Orlando, as well as Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs.

Moore’s interest in singing grew after seeing the musical Oklahoma! She was also encouraged to perform by her maternal grandmother, who was her inspiration. Some of Moore’s first public exposure occurred when she sang the national anthem at several Florida sporting events. She subsequently came to the attention of the head of the artists and repertoire department at Epic Records after his friend, a FedEx employee, overheard her as she sang at a recording studio.

Personal life

Moore dated Philippines-born singer/actor Billy Crawford for a “few months” when she was younger.

Moore dated actor Wilmer Valderrama for eighteen months between 2000 and 2002. In 2006, Valderrama appeared on The Howard Stern Show and detailed that he and Moore were each other’s “first loves” although he did not claim that their relationship was sexual, as was alleged by several media sources who misquoted his remarks. Moore later referred to Valderrama as a “good guy” and a “gentleman” although she has stated that his comments about their relationship were “utterly tacky”.

Moore began dating tennis star Andy Roddick in 2002; Roddick ended the relationship in March 2004.

In November 2004, Moore began dating Scrubs actor Zach Braff. Referring to Braff, Moore said that she likes “good Jewish boy(s)… with a sense of humor”. In 2006, the two were incorrectly reported to be engaged and broke up later in 2006.

In early 2007, media reports linked Moore to Adam Goldstein, known professionally as “DJ AM” though the two were reported to have ended their relationship in March 2007.

Also in 2007, she briefly dated actor/singer Greg Laswell

Mandy Moore is set to follow in the footsteps of Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudgens, by becoming the next big Disney star.

Mandy has signed on to voice ‘Rapunzel’ in a new 3D animated version of the classic fairytale!

The story has been modernized a little, whereby instead of being held captive in the tower for her entire life, Rapunzel escapes and “goes on the run with a bandit as her captor pursues them”.

Dramas face tough time at Toronto festival

If there is anything Oscar voters love, it is a good drama. But as a key festival stop on the road to Hollywood awards got down to business on Friday, dramas were less on movie screens and more behind the scenes where the film genre is troubled.

The Toronto International Film Festival, which has long been considered a starting point for movie awards — Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire” got a big boost here last year — opened on Thursday night with Charles Darwin drama “Creation,” which came into the event seeking a U.S. distributor.

The festival boasts more than 330 films screening over 10 days, and ahead of opening week about a third of them lacked key distribution, including titles such as Atom Egoyan’s “Chloe” and Oliver Parker’s “Dorian Gray.”

Facing the recession at home, audiences have flocked to escapist fantasies and comedies, causing distributors of the dramas that vie for Oscars to snap up rights for those genres, leaving serious-minded fare in the dust.

Industry players say lovers of good dramas are not gone, nor is the genre dead. They see the issue as cyclical and more a marketing and cost problem than one of creative content.

Still, if you are making movies like 2007’s “No Country for Old Men,” which earned a best film Oscar, times are tough.

Director Jon Amiel, whose “Creation” tells of Charles Darwin struggling with his theories of evolution in the 1850s, called “drama” the new “five-letter word” in Hollywood.

“If you’re making a movie about a dead, bald Englishman, you’re not making a movie that even the indie distributors are flocking to buy these days,” Amiel said. “There are just many, many movies that American audiences are not going to see.”

The waning interest can be seen at box offices. Two big hits of the art house market this past summer were war drama “The Hurt Locker,” which earned $12 million — a solid number for a low-budget film but far less than twice the roughly $29 million earned by romantic comedy “(500) Days of Summer.”

“There’s a real conservative attitude (and) dramas are viewed as risky in today’s marketplace,” said Steven Beer, an entertainment attorney with law firm Greenberg Traurig.

Still, industry players say dramas can lure fans and make money. The key is devising the right production and marketing model that makes sense given today’s movie going climate.

In many cases, those marketing strategies call for grass roots campaigns that target key groups, lovers of science and period pieces for a movie such as “Creation,” for instance.

Production costs must fall to account for lower box office and declining DVD sales, which have dropped by double-digits on a percentage basis due in large part to competition from other forms of home entertainment.

“These have always been tough movies and they’ll always be tough movies. In a tough economic climate perhaps even tougher, which is why those models have to change,” said Tom Ortenberg, president of theatrical films at The Weinstein Co.

Industry watcher David Poland of MovieCityNews.com, said the drop in DVD sales had been a key factor in distributors’ unwillingness to back expensive dramas but, like the other experts, he noted there remained an appetite for the genre.

Still, distributors remain selective when looking at dramas, and that leaves little room for another breakthrough at Toronto 2009 such as “Slumdog” proved to be last year when it was acquired by Fox Searchlight ahead of awards season.

Paris Hilton’s wisdom immortalised in book of quotations

Hilton is known for her appearance in a sex tape in 2003, her appearance on the television series The Simple Life, her several minor film roles (most notably her role in the horror film House of Wax in 2005), her 2004 tongue-in-cheek autobiography, her 2006 music album Paris, and her work in modeling. As a result of several legal incidents, Hilton also served a widely publicized sentence in a Los Angeles County jail in 2007.

Personal life

Hilton was engaged to fashion model Jason Shaw from mid-2002 to early 2003. In 2003-2004 she had a relationship with singer Nick Carter. Later she was engaged to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, from May 29, 2005 to November 2005. Thereafter, she began dating another Greek shipping heir, Stavros Niarchos III, before breaking up in May 2006. In early 2008, she was spotted with Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden and in May, Hilton announced her intention to marry Madden during interview with television talk-show host David Letterman. The two broke up in November 2008, and “remain very good friends”. She began dating The Hills star Doug Reinhardt in February 2009; Hilton has also referred to her intention to marry Reinhardt, saying “He’s gonna be my husband.” The couple broke up in June 2009, only to be seen back together again in August of the same year.

Hilton told Live with Regis and Kelly: “One-night stands are not for me. I think it’s gross when you just give it up. Guys want you more, if you don’t just hand it to them on a platter.”

Hilton loves small dogs, and lives with a Yorkshire Terrier and a female Chihuahua named Tinkerbell. Paris Hilton is frequently seen carrying Tinkerbell (dubbed an “accessory dog”) at social events and functions, and in all five seasons of television reality show The Simple Life. In 2004, Tinkerbell “authored” a memoir, The Tinkerbell Hilton Diaries. On August 12, 2004, Tinkerbell went missing after Hilton’s apartment was burgled, and a $5,000 reward was offered for her safe return. She was found six days later. By December 1, 2004, Tinkerbell was again spotted with Paris Hilton at various events. Hilton has also purchased a male Chihuahua on July 25, 2007 from Pets of Bel Air in Los Angeles. Hilton’s love for man’s best friend led her to create an apparel line for dogs called Little Lily by Paris Hilton, with some of the proceeds going to benefit animal rescue. “I have 17 dogs and I like to dress them, so I started designing this clothing line and it’s really cute, like dresses and jeans — everything you can imagine for humans, but for dogs,” she said in an interview during Super Bowl XLII festivities. Hilton’s love for her dogs led to the rumor that she wanted to be frozen with them at the Cryonics Institute, but Hilton denied the rumor on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

A homemade sex video of Hilton and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked on the Internet in 2003, later released as the DVD 1 Night in Paris despite attempted legal action. It appeared a week prior to the premiere of The Simple Life.

On December 20, 2008 around 4:00 am, a man in a hooded sweater and gloves entered Hilton’s Mulholland Estates, Los Angeles home and stole $2 million dollars worth of jewelry and other items from her bedroom. Hilton was not home at the time and nobody was injured in the home invasion. There is speculation that it was an inside job.

to be immortalised alongside remarks by some of the greatest thinkers of all time in the latest edition of the Oxford Book of Quotations — and she reckons it’s “so cool”.

Hilton, the socialite turned reality TV star and retailing phenomenon, is listed in the latest version of the 65-year-old dictionary, released this week, alongside the likes of Confucius, Oscar Wilde and Stephen Hawking.

Her contribution? “Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in.”

Hilton, 28, was delighted to be featured in the book which is a renowned list of memorable sayings.

“So cool that I have a quote in the dictionary,” she wrote on her Twitter page.

Another new entry in the seventh edition of the Oxford University Press publication is Sarah Palin.

The former vice-presidential candidate makes the cut for her most famous quip: “What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick.”

More than 20,000 new quotations have been added to the dictionary including President Barack Obama for saying: “The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice.”

Others came from the likes of British author Terry Pratchett — using an “embuggerance” to describe his Alzheimer’s — and from author Fay Weldon: “Guilt is to motherhood as grapes are to wine.”